“MIND MGMT, Volume Four: The Magician”

“Oh, geez. This one is where things get just a bit more confusing and non-linear. I’ve enjoyed that this series has managed to tell a complicated story in a simple, understandable way without sacrificing the interesting parts. But I’m hoping this volume is a departure from which we return, not the first indicator of the trajectory here.

I mentioned LOST in the review for volume 3. I had a really interesting experience with LOST because I hadn’t seen a moment of it until it was over, and I already knew that the ending was a huge letdown. So when I watched it, it was with the idea in mind that there was going to be a lot of mystery for mystery’s sake going on. And I think that made it very watchable. If you kind of just figured there was some fucked up shit going on, some of which would wrap itself up and some of which wouldn’t, then it was easier to stick with it. In fact, I enjoyed the hell out of it until the season where they weren’t on the island and there was a lot of flashing back and being emotional in parked cars. That’s when it was boring. That’s when it felt, to me, like the script was purposely hiding what happened as opposed to maintaining mystery by showing you only what characters saw.

Anyway, that’s a long way of saying that if this series ends without wrapping things up, I’ll be disappointed, but not SUPER disappointed, because the ride has still been pretty damn good.

Also, what’s with stories where a dude has one huge arm and one regular arm? Mind MGMT, Hellboy, Lady In The Water. What’s going on with that?”